As someone interested in the modernisation of healthcare delivery, I try and keep abreast of new ideas and proposed changes in the US, the UK, in NZ and elsewhere around the world. An article by E.J. Alexander, who wrote recently on the state of healthcare in the US, asking "Why is it that in a country as affluent as the USA, citizens are struggling to afford such a basic necessity as proper healthcare for themselves and their families?" caught my eye.
According to the stats quoted, almost 50 million people (including close to 9 million children) have no health insurance coverage at all.. while a further 75 million are underinsured. Apparently the average working family pays over $1,800 every year in premiums in addition to over $1,700 in out-of-pocket expenses annually in health insurance expenses.
It's no wonder that Obama wants to try and make changes to the healthcare system when other stats that claim healthcare premiums are currently rising 3 times faster than the cost of inflation with projections of the cost of personal healthcare spending set to double over the next 8 years!
Mr Alexander points to Medical Discount Plans or Medical Savings Plans as a possible solution. These are plans that 'allow the average person to reduce their medical expenses by providing discounts on a wide range of services, from doctor's visits and dental exams to hospital stays and prescription drugs'.
Some of the benefits of the Medical Discount Plans: they typically require no qualifying physical exams or contracts. They usually feature easy online applications, affordable prices regardless of age or health with the ability to cancel at anytime and some even offer free 30 day trial memberships to test drive the program before committing to it.
The downside: Medical Savings Plans are not "major medical insurance" and therefore do not pay medical bills on behalf of the patient.
How they work: the company offering them will contract with the same large PPO Networks used by top insurance companies, which allows the Medical Savings Plan member access to the same low rates enjoyed by the insurance companies, in exchange for a reasonably priced monthly membership fee.
When the member uses a medical service, for instance, a Doctor's Visit which typically costs about $75.00, the member pays his medical bill up front at the Doctor's Office then the company immediately reimburses the member for their Doctor's Bill thus reducing the member's out-of-pocket medical costs.
This approach is claimed to reduce medical expenses significantly (especially for prolonged hospital stays) as some plans may reimburse members up to $1,000 per day for each day spent in the hospital up to 30 days per year including separate reimbursement for the Anesthesiologist, etc.
Sounds interesting. Right now it is hard to get a true picture of healthcare costs because there is a lack of transparency across the system - and to some extent, this is understandable...some of the participants are private businesses..so why would they want to open up their books?. On the other hand, we're talking about the lives and care of patients.....real people. Some of whom might struggle to personally stump up the cash to pay for the care that they need so badly. I've not personally verified the stats quoted above, but if they are about right, and if the Medical Savings Plan member does get access to the 'same low rates enjoyed by the insurance companies' , then that would seem to be a good thing, and something that does not require a great deal of reform or change to take place before it can come into effect. For those reasons, it seems like a reasonable idea, at least in the interim.
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